WEST CHESTER, PA: LIBERAL ANTI TRUMP TERRORIST SHOOTS & KILLS GOP COMMITTEEMAN WITH TWO SHOTS TO THE HEAD
CLAYTON CARTER III
Liberal Anti-Trump Terrorist Shoots And Kills GOP Committeeman With Two Shots to the Head in Front of Wife in West Goshen Township
VIDEO:
West Goshen homicide defendant had history of violence at home
BY Michael Rellahan
SEE: http://www.dailylocal.com/article/DL/20170809/NEWS/170809788; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
WEST GOSHEN >> Clayton P. Carter III has a history of violence
on Box Elder Drive, the normally quiet residential street within
shouting distance of West Chester East High School.
The man who Chester County law enforcement authorities say shot
and killed a neighbor as the culmination of a long running but largely
unexplained dispute had previously been arrested and charged with
assault and criminal trespass on the street — at the very house where he
had been living until his arrest Tuesday.
Almost 20 years ago, according to court records, Carter rammed
his Chevrolet pickup truck into the front door of a house on the street
where his in-laws lived. He then shoved his father-in-law and demanded
to know where his daughter was.
The criminal charges were ultimately resolved with a summary plea
to counts of disorderly conduct and harassment, and Carter — who was
then 23 years old and living in Uwchlan, where he was the manager of a
trailer park — was placed on 360 days of probation, ordered to continue
counseling and seek a mental health evaluation.
West Goshen police and Chester County prosecutors say that at 1
a.m. Tuesday in the 300 block of Box Elder Drive, Carter shot and killed
his next-door neighbor, G. Brooks Jennings. The defendant and the
victim had been involved in a long-running neighborhood dispute that
culminated with the defendant shooting the victim once, then standing
over the victim’s body and shooting him a second time in the head,
according to a press release.
Carter, 51, was living with his wife and father-in-law at the Box
Elder Drive address, according to his attorney, Terrence Marlowe of
Downingtown, who represents him in the murder and had represented him in
the earlier case. He is now being held in Chester County Prison without
bail, pending a preliminary hearing. Marlowe has suggested that the
shooting occurred in self-defense.
“It is a sad situation when neighbors can’t put their differences
aside for the sake of a peaceful community,” commented West Goshen
Police Chief Joseph Gleason. “Such a senseless circumstance which only
results in tragedy for multiple families.” A spokesman for the
department said that officers had been called to the neighborhood at
least eight times this year to resolve disputes between the men.
In a criminal complaint filed on Jan. 11, 1998, then-Officer
Richard M. Geiger reported that he was called to Box Elder Drive at
12:40 a.m. for a report of a subject driving a pickup truck on the front
lawn and smashing into the front door. The driver, identified as
Carter, continued to ram the house until the truck itself was inside.
Geiger said that when he arrived, the truck was through the front
wall, and the front door and living room were “extensively damaged.” He
and Officer Lewis Knerr met Carter coming out of the house, and said he
told them, “I know what I did, arrest me.” When Geiger asked him if the
pickup was his, Carter told him, “Yes. I came to get my daughter.”
The officers then interviewed William Magill, Carter’s
father-in-law. Magill said that Carter had called him twice from a car
phone, but that moments later he heard the truck striking the front of
the house four to five times. Magill said he was standing at the top of
the stairs when he saw Carter get out of the truck while it was inside
the house, walk up the stairs and knock a golf club he was holding out
of his hands. Carter shoved Magill two or three times and asked about
his daughter. When Carter was taken to the West Chester Police
Department to await arraignment before then-Magisterial District Judge
J. Peter Winther, an officer asked if he was suicidal. “No,” he said. “I
just want my daughter,” according to the criminal affidavit.
He was charged with aggravated assault, criminal trespass,
recklessly endangering another person, and related counts. He pleaded
guilty to the summary charges on July 6, 1998, after Marlowe and
then-Assistant District Attorney Leslie Pike worked out an agreement.
The allegations in the homicide as laid out by police and the Chester County District Attorney’s Office are as follows:
At approximately 7:50 p.m. on Monday, police responded to another
dispute between Carter and Jennings about cursing and a video recording
in the back yard. The police resolved the dispute.
At approximately 1 a.m. on Tuesday the men got into another
dispute, with Carter claiming that Jennings was shining a light into his
eyes while he was outside. Coincidentally, Carter ended up pulling a
car onto his own lawn and shining the high beams of the car at Jennings.
Carter had retrieved a .380 caliber semi-automatic Ruger handgun
from his residence, and confronted Jennings again outside. He then shot
Jennings once in the head while he was standing, which knocked Jennings
to the ground. Authorities say Carter then stood over the victim and
shot him a second time in the head. Jennings, according to the news
release issued, was on his own property.
In a recorded and Mirandized statement, Carter admitted the
details of the ongoing disputes and shooting the victim, but said
Jennings threatened him with a knife. The official statement noted that
Carter had no injuries, and did not call the police and did not render
aid to the victim.
Multiple witnesses heard the gunshots and reported a timing gap
between the first and second shot. Jennings’ wife heard the first shot
and — looking out a window — saw her husband lying motionless on the
ground, and Carter standing over him and shooting him in the head.
Marlowe said Tuesday that Carter and his wife had moved to the
Box Elder house some years ago to care for his mother-in-law, Phyllis
Magill, a clerk at the Brandywine River Museum gift shop who died in
2013. They had since been caring for William Magill, he said.
Anybody with any further information is urged to contact West
Goshen Detective Dave Maurer at 610-696-7400 or Chester County Detective
John O’Donnell at 610-344-6866.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
